1950 trailer truck airplane - GIF, video, and photos

[Toolmaker51]

I met and interviewed the designer of the cargo pod portion of this plane for one if my Industrial Design classes when I was in college. Somewhere I have a copy of one of his presentation drawings for this plane. He was a nice guy and very accommodating. He also designed the Coppertop battery, the iconic Boston pencil sharpener and invented the twin-wheel furniture caster.

I'll continue this evening, with an analogy.

Flight Of The Phoenix 1965 with Jimmy Stewart, Hardy Kruger and others...when their cargo plane crashes in the desert, an aircraft designer [Kruger] originates how to cannibalize remainder and re-construct a flyable craft. Other members of party are enthused until his applications are scale hobby craft - not passenger planes. He argues a model only rolls along the floor, his are true planes that operate in same manner as full size. With him as the only reasonable means of returning to civilization, some accept the proposal.

Link to script https://www.springfieldspringfield.c...of-the-phoenix

Well, I'd fly along in the same kind of instance. Whose mind wouldn't it cross flying along when someone up's and says he also designed casters and pencil sharpeners? But on the other hand, might a real engineer have more than one field of expertise?

John asks why this concept didn't "take off". One, to be efficient, one plane needs more than container. Anything cargo-carrying must transit to produce income, not wait for a load to collect or fly unladen; even worse.
It does make me wonder, did this concept birth modular container system planes use now?